Social business – what is it all about?
What is “social business”?
Well, it depends on who you ask. The term could refer to “a non-loss, non-dividend company designed to address a social objective” – Wikipedia but in the social media world it is sometimes referred to as “enterprise 2.0”
While there is some confusion over what exactly this practice should be called, there is a lot more clarity as to what it is. FreshNetworks, my social media consultancy, defines “social business” as the implementation of the unique communicative properties of social media across all levels of a business.
This is pretty broad, but really there isn’t anything too new here, what we are talking about is using social media to improve communication – which can now be done with more ease, speed and relevance than before.
Why become a “social business?”
Easier collaboration and communication
Email conversations between two individuals can make sense, but add extra people in who may only need to know certain parts of the conversation and now your communication becomes much less effective.
Emails can fragment, become irrelevant or just flood users with unnecessary information. And how do you define or decide who should be included into an email or not? What about working on a shared document? How do you control the current version and who works on what part?
Customer service
Are you primed to deal with questions, complaints and suggestions that customers make on social channels? How can you make sure the right people in your organisation get the information that would allow them to deliver better service? This again ties into using collaboration tools, but can enable your team to become leaders in their field, such as TwelpForce from BestBuy.
Social customer relationship management (SCRM)
Does the customer who has just emailed or phoned you have a history with you on social media? How can you tell? Are they generally positive or negative, and are they influential? Connecting all the pieces will give you the full picture and once again can deliver improved service to your customer. Imagine phoning a company that you have complained about on Twitter and to have them acknowledge that?
How to make social business happen
Remember that two things are crucial to make this happen – get the right culture, and get the right tools.
The culture usually has to come from the top – without buy-in from a senior management level, you will struggle to implement it unless a kind of pilot programme delivers remarkable results.
The tools are important – you don’t want to be using consumer tools like Facebook or Twitter for sensitive communications. Fortunately there are a range of collaborative tools out there that emulate the user experience of the popular social networks, which will make them easy and intuitive to pick up, especially for the latest recruits who will have grown up using these types of platform. Platforms like Jive, Yammer and Chatter are just some examples.
Related posts:
- Social Media: We Know What It Is, But Is It For Every Business?
- 5 Social Media Tactics That Can Harm Your Business
- Social Media Questions: Management Style
- Social Media: Halfway Through 2011 by Albert Qian ‘The Social Media Dude’
- GlobalGoodGroup.com Exclusive: The Era of Social Blogging and Social Networking
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